Cyclone Thelma (1998)

A tropical low was first identified in the Arafura Sea north of Arnhem Land on 1 December 1998, and by 0000 UTC on 6 December it sat about 280 km north of Melville Island and had deepened into a named cyclone. Thelma intensified rapidly, passing very near the Tiwi Islands and clearing Darwin by 200 km, and was the first system rated category 5 on the Australian scale observed in the Timor Sea. Moving southwest, it weakened before crossing the northwest Kimberley coast about 140 km northeast of Kuri Bay around 2200 UTC on 10 December as a category 3.

Formed (UTC)

1998-12-01

Dissipated (UTC)

1998-12-15

Peak Saffir-Simpson category

4

Peak wind (knots, 1-minute)

135

Basin it formed in

South Pacific

IBTrACS storm page

ncics.org/ibtracs/index.php?name=v04r01-1998335S12138

Category: Disasters & Incidents

Tags: tropical cyclone, timor sea, northern territory, kimberley, landfall

Coordinates: -12.409574504003297, 127.38563824399506

Part of South Pacific tropical cyclones of category 4 and above in the 1997 to 2009 seasons

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